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Ideal_Rock
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Appraisers'' List Development
- Thread starter pricescope
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The list identifies independent appraisers and the results of the questionnaire are supposed to give useful information to help potential clients to shop for an appraiser that meets their requirements. Many of the previous comments go towards this confusion about what is meant by 'independent' and questions #1 & #2 were targeted directly at this issue. I don't disagree with any of the above posters in that I have no specific objection to appraisers who offer other products and services, including retail sales. Most jewelry appraisers work at or own retail jewelry stores. It's when we start to call ourselves independent that it gets sticky. I and the other appraisers on the list are very interested in this topic and in what our customers count as important. It directly affects our businesses and our decisions about what services we do and don’t offer. Those of us who don’t sell have made a conscious decision about this because we feel it would be unethical to call ourselves independent appraisers otherwise. Every one of us could be retail jewelers if we wanted to. Most of us have worked retail in the past. We all have a pretty good idea about where we draw our personal line and we haven’t all made the same decisions although there is a fair amount of similarity in our choices. There is much more confusion about where consumers draw this line and I would love to hear more consumer comments about this. Based on what people count as important, Leonid can then design the questionnaire to ask questions that will produce useful answers. I’m reasonably confident that this is the point of this thread.
Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver
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Regular Guy
Ideal_Rock
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Sorry to keep butting in here....I do think that the appraiser, sometimes seen (and possibly, actually keeper of the task) as gatekeeper to "the good," has a potentially important role, particularly in the typical consumer's life.
This last question just seems wrong headed to me...like you're trying to set out compass points, drawing a line in the sand, and are mixing south together with east or west, when what you want to have is true north.
The interesting question for a consumer isn't if an appraiser is independent inasmuch as he would be able to do a work up for my stone accurately enough vs. being blinded by the option in his back pocket he wants to sell instead; this is just the obsession for the trade, as it is their natural focus.
Where consumers have experienced trouble with appraisers on this board, it is where the appraiser has not been successful enough at laying down a patter (did he say it really "popped?") connected with the stone selected, making them feel all good about it. When people have been critical of their appraiser on this board, it is with a concern only half related to what Garry posed. It is not:
Steve's informal survey brought out what you might expect, if you thought about it....the appraiser should be able to, without objection, answer questions that the consumer had thought to ask. Hopefully, on the points of...
a) is an appraiser ready to sell you an alternate bill of good, vs the one you came in with....for all those represented here as independent appraisers, it will be a given this will not happen, and further
b) if the consumer has the wherewith-all to ask, the appraiser can answer questions raised by the thoughtful consumer.
Not to name names, now, and any reader will take note I've butted heads with one Rock Dock here, but I will say for him, and would say for any appraiser good things who does this as I think he does....does the appraiser help to prompt questions in the course of their visit (or website, as may be the case), so as to encourage in the consumer the kinds of questions to organically arise, so that, when asked, the appraiser can truthfully answer them, and in so doing, help draw them to the best selection they can make.
What consumers want in the big picture, after it's clear they're not more rudely being ripped off...is assistance with making the best selection they can make. Forget about tightly defining independent or not....for my money, figure out helpful strategies to help the appraiser do this thing, that surely they themselves would have derived benefit from, as well.
With regards,
This last question just seems wrong headed to me...like you're trying to set out compass points, drawing a line in the sand, and are mixing south together with east or west, when what you want to have is true north.
The interesting question for a consumer isn't if an appraiser is independent inasmuch as he would be able to do a work up for my stone accurately enough vs. being blinded by the option in his back pocket he wants to sell instead; this is just the obsession for the trade, as it is their natural focus.
Where consumers have experienced trouble with appraisers on this board, it is where the appraiser has not been successful enough at laying down a patter (did he say it really "popped?") connected with the stone selected, making them feel all good about it. When people have been critical of their appraiser on this board, it is with a concern only half related to what Garry posed. It is not:
but rather, it is the consumer's fear the appraiser is never willing to say to the consumer: "this stone is crap..." (since they worked so hard to find it and all, and besides, each and every piece has its own positive character). Moreover, the consumer could barely dream that the appraiser might not only tell him this stone is crap, but go on to tell him the characteristics he can look for in a stone, to bring out the light performance he is looking for.
Steve's informal survey brought out what you might expect, if you thought about it....the appraiser should be able to, without objection, answer questions that the consumer had thought to ask. Hopefully, on the points of...
a) is an appraiser ready to sell you an alternate bill of good, vs the one you came in with....for all those represented here as independent appraisers, it will be a given this will not happen, and further
b) if the consumer has the wherewith-all to ask, the appraiser can answer questions raised by the thoughtful consumer.
Not to name names, now, and any reader will take note I've butted heads with one Rock Dock here, but I will say for him, and would say for any appraiser good things who does this as I think he does....does the appraiser help to prompt questions in the course of their visit (or website, as may be the case), so as to encourage in the consumer the kinds of questions to organically arise, so that, when asked, the appraiser can truthfully answer them, and in so doing, help draw them to the best selection they can make.
What consumers want in the big picture, after it's clear they're not more rudely being ripped off...is assistance with making the best selection they can make. Forget about tightly defining independent or not....for my money, figure out helpful strategies to help the appraiser do this thing, that surely they themselves would have derived benefit from, as well.
With regards,
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